fugtussey

Here's John G. Fantucchio's oft-reprinted & iconic cover to The Buyer's Guide for Comic Fandom (TBG) #1 from Feb/Mar 1971. When 17 year old Alan Light launched his adzine, he provided a venue to sell comics for years to come. Despite a 3600 circulation, TBG #1 is surprisingly scarce. TBG morphed into The Comic Buyer's Guide when Alan Light sold it to Krause Publications in the early 80's.

Here's another key fanzine, Batmania #1 from July 1964 published by big name fan artist and Batmaniac Biljo White. Billy Joe White, almost always referred to as "Biljo", was a pioneering legend of early comic fandom, and one of the earliest creators of amateur (e.g. "small press") comics. A prolific publisher/editor, he also produced such classic fanzines as The Eye, The Stripper, Comicollector (before the merge with Rocket's Blast), Captain Biljo Comics and Capt Biljo Presents. Under the editorship of Roy Thomas, Biljo became the Art Editor of the original Alter Ego with issue #7 (Fall 1964), and served as such for Roy's three fan-produced issues.

Sorry I'm so late to this thread. Here's Amateur Komix #3, a side-stapled ditto-printed stripzine from 1966. It features the first published comic strip of Jim Starlin (signing his name as "Jim Star") and starring amateur superhero Dolfin in "The Big Man". This one's pretty rare since ditto reproduction (aka "spirit duplicator") could only produce a maximum of 200 copies.

About 15 years ago, I chatted with Rich Buckler at a local Con and had him sign several old fanzines that he had originally published. He was so enthralled by one of them (he had not seen a copy of Intrigue #1 in over 30 years) that he offered to trade me original art for the fanzine. He said he could do a much better job if he took it home. After around 6 months, I thought maybe he had forgotten about his promise. Low and behold, a beautiful "Hulk Vs. Thing" illustration arrived at my house about 2 months later.

This does not end the story. At the 2015 NYCC, I went to Rich's table in Artist Alley and commissioned a full body illustration of Deathlok, giving him $100 upfront. Again, he said he would do a much better job at home so he could pay attention to details. I even joked with him about our last transaction ("You're not going to take 8 months like the last time, right?!"). You would think I would have learned my lesson by now. So after a 9 month wait, I finally emailed him ... no reply. Three weeks later, I received the fully rendered art and was very happy with the drawing.

The lesson is: the squeaky wheel gets greased! So my advice would be to periodically contact the artist via email, facebook or wherever else you might be able to communicate with him. He will get the message.

NOT P. Craig Russell. The Thing illo is DEFINITELY is a piece by David Russell, published on page 44 of Gary Groth's (Owner/Publisher of Fantagraphics) crude comic fanzine Fantastic Fanzine #11 from Spring 1970 (see scan below). I have also attached an image of the iconic Steranko cover from Fantastic Fanzine #11. Russell contributed to many early comic fanzines in the late 60's (e.g. Marvel Mirror, Collector's Chronicle, Comic & Crypt, E Pluribus Marvel, The Essence, Fantastic Fanzine, Freon, and many more), then moved on to become a renowned storyboard artist! I have some similar examples of his original artwork and would recognize his early work (and distinctive signature) anywhere. Russell did the storyboards for such awesome, classic movies as Batman (yep, the Burton one), Chronicles of Narnia, Tombstone, The Thin Red Line, and more! He can be reached by going to his website at www.dynamicimagesdr.com. He lives in Australia now but can be reached through his website.

Aaron

Does anybody have any information on the below fanzine (LOC or Letter of Comment) and issue? It's in a lot of comics I'm considering purchasing and couldn't find much about it. Any insight is greatly appreciated.

 

 

LOC #1 is from 1980 and was a mass distributed comic magazine, sold commercially at comic shops as well as bookstores (e.g. Barnes & Noble). I would not classify it as a true fanzine as it was professionally published (though I believe the inside paper is newsprint), widely distributed, and featured art and articles from up and coming pro-artists/writers. It lasted only 10 issues before folding in the early 80's.

 

It's a nice magazine with interesting content but not worth anything. Dale's 2015 Comic Fanzine Price Guide lists it as worth $5 in good condition, $18 in fine and $25 in NM - note that Dale's Price Guide is notorious for inflating the actual value of fanzines/magazines and I would not purchase this issue for any more than $15 NM. It's certainly not rare or scarce ...

 

I've scanned ebay and found several issues (not #1) for $10 - $55 each, but they seem to have been sitting there for ages. Use the search term (LOC,"Letter of Comment") fanzine to see what I'm seeing, then click on the "Sold Listings" box on the left hand side. You'll see that no one has bought any issues in over 3 months, a signal to me that there is little interest in this magazine, and that the existing listings are grossly overpriced.

Does anyone know anything about this fanzine? I haven't really found any info online.

Bruce Cardozo published 4 issues of Fandoms (the lack of an apostrophe was intentional) Special during 1965 and each issue got better and better. His father, Bob Cardozo, was an obscure Timely artist during the golden age and contributed to later issues. The 4th issue featured a cover by Mike Vosburg, and several strips by other soon-to-be-pros including 9 pg Peacemaker strip with story/art by Marv Wolfman and 12 pg Dave Gypsy strip by Vosburg. It also included ads for Wolfman's What Th ... and his Stories of Suspense, and Super Adventures fanzines. Wolfman's Stories of Suspense #2 featured the first fully published story by Stephen King, and his Super Adventures zine featured frequent collaborations with his best friend Len Wein. Fandoms Special #1 you bought is probably worth around $40-50 as there were only 100 run off the ditto machine, whereas there are plenty of #3 & 4 available as they were offset printed in much higher quantities. I have issues #1, 3 and 4, but have never been able to find #2, which was again printed in glorious blue ditto ink (and is thus very rare).

Wow ... very cool!

Thought you might enjoy some photos from the "ole daze. First up we have I believe David Belmont. He used to be a part of the American Comic Book Co. crew with David T Alexander and Terry Stroud. Back in the day, these guys were buying up collections like drunken sailors. Wonderful stuff coming in the doors everyday. This was from a party after a big Marvel buy. (Check out the stacks next to a hammered Belmont:

Wow. Those photos are fantastic! Do you have any old ones of Terry Stroud? I'm pretty good friends with him now, but I wasn't around during his American Comic Book Company heyday.

In any case, great photos!

Aaron

Thanks for the shot of David Alexander...I have know his since the first Berkley comic convention and this is a great thead....more photos please...

I don't know David too well, but I'm good friends with his ex-partner from American Comic Book Company, Terry Stroud. Terry gets me into the SD Comic Con every year as an exhibitor!

More photos from OAFCon 2014

Fanzine collector/historian Steve Ogden with his beautiful wife Vicki.

They recently moved from San Antonio to Oklahoma City.

Another blurry image of Paul McSpadden with Mrs Buddy Saunders.

Far left you can see the back of Michelle Nolan as she diligently works over each booth!

Speaking of Buddy Saunders, here he is flipping through my boxes of comic fanzines.

Buddy is publishing an ERB-universe coffee table book called "The Martian Legion" that you will not believe.

The site's not up yet, but check out www.themartianlegion.com in about 3 weeks (Early Dec 2014) - Buddy

had advance copies at OAFCon and it is the highest quality book I've seen in years! No BS!

Here's Bill Schelly again with the legendary Roy Bonario Sr!

David T Alexander and Son from Culture & Thrills had a few tables.

This is the best thread! Here's some additional photos from OAFCon held in Norman OK on Oct 25th and 26, 2014.

I had a table there selling 60's and 70's fanzines and did quite well, and caught up with some old friends. I tried taking photos of every table there, but about half of the images were blurred and not worth seeing. I tried to take a few photos of Cat and his wife, but this stupid HTC-M8 phone camera is the worst, and most turned out to be horribly blurry (sorry Cat).

This is a selfie of me (left) and Paul McSpadden.

Here's Bart Bush looking spry! We both showed each other our surgery scars ...

Guest of honor and fandom legend Bill Schelly (seated) chatting with another fandom legend, Steve Fears.

I don't know the guy's at the next table over, but he was displaying pages from "Robin Dies at Dawn" including the splash page ... awesome!

My table was right next to John Wooley's - from left to right: John Wooley, Mark Lamberti and John McMahan.

Cool stuff. I was aware that Martin and Simmons had been comic fans back in the day, but I was unaware of their contributions to fanzines.

Amazingly, Gene Simmons was a major contributor to over 180 comic, sci-fi and horror fanzines from 1965-70. He contributed art, articles comments and was an amazing letter hack, mostly to obtain free fanzines. He also edited (or co-edited) and published his own fanzines including Mantis, Faun, Cosmos and Cosmostiletto. I have Faun #14 and have had access to Cosmostiletto issues, and they were horribly printed in ditto, sometimes with a nicer offset cover, but pretty much crudzines. Gene's writings were pretty good though, very direct and honest - much like he is today.

A few more images of classic comic book fanzines from the 1960's:

Ymir 2 from Feb 1965 – Johnny Chambers’ awesome dittozine is noteworthy because it happens to include George R. R. Martin’s first published text story “Meet the Executioner,” starring his Manta Ray costumed hero creation.

A few more images of classic comic book fanzines from the 1960's:

Xero #1, Sept 1960 – Though not really a comic fanzine, XERO was a key building block in the creation of comics fandom. Produced by Richard and Pat Lupoff (with Bhob Stewart), it was a widely circulated science fiction fanzine that began to examine comic books thru the pivotal series “All In Color For A Dime”. Those articles help focus the attention of would-be comic fans in comic books, and the entire series was later reprinted in book form. XERO went on to win a Hugo, and some of the articles were reprinted many years later in a hardback book.

A few more images of classic comic book fanzines from the 1960's:

Web Spinner #1 from May 1965 – An excellent Marvel dittozine featuring Gene’s Klein’s "The Fabulous Career of Captain America" article. Klein is now known as the the tongue waggling Demon, Gene Simmons of rock band KISS, and contributed to later issues of Web Spinner.

A few more images of classic comic book fanzines from the 1960's:

Voice of Comicdom #12 from June 1968 – This particular issue is very collectable as it contains “Monsters Rule,” the first published comic strip work of Richard Corben!

A few more images of classic comic book fanzines from the 1960's/70's:

Utopia/Valhalla #1 from May 1970 – This one has been posted before by our own EwanUK, who recently sold this issue for $5100 on ebay!!! You may ask why? Well it features the first published work of a young lad named Alan Moore. He writes an article entitled “Howard Philip Lovecraft” which ends by stating “© Alan Moore 1969” which means he must have written it when he was 15 or maybe 16 years old.

A few more images of classic comic book fanzines from the 1960's:

Star Studded Comics #1 from June 1963 – Star Studded Comics was one of the greatest amateur super hero stripzines ever, and served as a training ground for future pro writers and artists. Published by the Texas Trio (Larry Herndon, Buddy Saunders and Howard Keltner), SSC featured the early work of George R. R. Martin, Jim Starlin, Rich Buckler, Al Milgrom, Dave Cockrum and many others. While the issue has a cover date of Sept 1963, the book was actually mailed in June '63. With a print-run of 250, this is the rarest of the 18 Star Studded Comics published.

A few more images of classic comic book fanzines from the 1960's:

Sense of Wonder #7 from April/May 1969 – The rarest of Bill Schelly’s classic series, this issue sports a stunning offset John G Fantucchio cover and great all-ditto interiors with work from George Metzger, Ronn Foss, Alan Hutchinson, Alan Hanley, Earl Blair Jr, Raymond Miller and other fandom luminaries!

A few more images of classic comic book fanzines from the 1960's:

Rocket's Blast Comicollector #44 from April 1966 – Features the first RBCC cover from legendary fandom artist John G Fantucchio!

A few more images of classic comic book fanzines from the 1960's:

ODD #1 from May 1964 – ODD was heavily inspired by the early comic book version of MAD Magazine, and included comic strip parodies of comic book characters, TV shows and movies. Editor Dave Herring was an incredibly gifted artist, and his ability to draw clean images on a ditto master rivaled Biljo White, who was the acknowledged guru of that media. His "Souperman" and "The Mobsters" strips in ODD #1 show Herring's talent with an even tougher printing method, the hectograph, an archaic printing process which was extremely labor intensive and yielded no more than 40 copies. According to Herring, the print-run of ODD #1 was miniscule (“Not much more than a dozen copies”), thus this issue is ultra-rare and has become much sought after in recent years.

A few more images of classic comic book fanzines from the 1960's:

Nucleus #1 from July 1969 – According to Editor/Publisher Mark Wheatley, a crude, experimental 3M duplicating machine (provided by a neighbor) was used to produce this first issue of the classic early comics fanzine Nucleus. The 3M machine was located in his next door neighbor's garage and took about 3 minutes per page, capable of printing on one side only. It certainly has not survived the rigors of age has it? Wheatley would later become an award winning artist of the Inkpot, Speakeasy and Mucker awards and currently heads Insight Studios Group/ISG publishing company.

A few more images of classic comic book fanzines from the 1960's:

Mask & Cape #4 – The first two issues were little more than crudzines, but under the new editorship of super-fan writer Steve Perrin, he ensured Mask & Cape’s legacy as one of the best dittozines of the 60’s.

A few more images of classic comic book fanzines from the 1960's:

Komix Illustrated #1 from July 1962] – 100% hand-lettered and drawn by Biljo White, Komix Illustrated #1 was the first fanzine ever produced by Biljo, "Master of the Ditto Master," whose charming, clean, cartoony style of art was perfect for ditto printing.